ABOUT

This film came from the successful collaboration between Jonny, Margi and Quentin on 9by5’s previous film, WE ALL SCREAM (currently in post-production). With Liam now onboard as producer, they want to make films that maximise what can be achieved with micro-budget filmmaking. With good actors and good ideas, they want to tell stories as simply as possible that have the biggest impact. The focus is on the acting and the concept, nothing extraneous, every pound thrown at the screen to make work that punches far above its weight.

All photos by Dominic Le Brun @hotcrossbrun

DIRECTOR’S VISION

Decorum is an exploration of self-doubt and suspicion, and the ways an experience can switch from magical to dangerous in the blink of an eye. A woman going back to a man’s flat after a date captures this knife-edge moment for me; she could be meeting the love of her life or be about to die. I was very inspired by Steve McQueen’s Small Axe film Lover’s Rock, which brilliantly captured the stakes of being a young woman at a house party. 

Decorum is about taking these stakes, these opposite possibilities of love/fun and creep/death, and concentrating them into the short format. As we follow Angie, and the warm post-pub glow is replaced by the coldness of Miles’ bare flat, the camera never gives us quite enough information to be totally sure of ourselves… Is she overreacting or in serious danger? These constantly shifting foundations give us both the comedy and horror of the piece.

This contrast will shape the whole feel of the film. At the beginning, as they pull each other excitedly up the stairs in their haste to get inside, the tone is warm, the camera handheld, quivering in excitement with our lead pair, always level with them or below. As soon as we enter the blankness of the flat, however, the colours become colder, the camera stiller and higher as we discover this creepy new environment along with Angie.

- Quentin

CAST & CREATIVES

MARGHERITA BARBIERI (Angie)

Margherita Barbieri is a dynamic actor and dancer based in London. She recently appeared in two seasons of Hulu’s Spellbound. She has starred in many short films, including You’re a Psychopath, I Love You which has been in the official selection of two BIFA qualifying festivals. 

Margherita is currently working on DEER, a short dance film that follows on from ECHO, a short she made last summer that was showcased in ‘Moves Magazine’. Other short films she’s acted in, such as Skylight, Starling, FLEA, and We All Scream, are currently in post production awaiting festival releases.

Margherita has been in a myriad of other projects, including starring in and producing many music videos, performing as a dancer at London Fashion Week, voicing a children’s audiobook for Amazon, and is currently in post production as a character in an immersive video game.

@alwaysmargi

JONNY LABEY (Miles)

Jonny is a Jersey-born actor best known as Paul Coker in BBC1’s flagship show EastEnders, currently playing Rex in Hollyoaks (Channel 4). Other roles include Toby in Shakespeare and Hathaway (2022). In 2017 Jonny won the first ever season of ITV’s smash hit show Dance Dance Dance.Other TV credits include ITV’s Celebrity X Factor (2019). In 2018 Jonny played Scott Hastings, the leading role in Baz Luhrmann's original West End cast of Strictly Ballroom at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Jonny shot his first short film, We All Scream, which he also wrote and starred in, earlier this year. He is currently developing two other scripts alongside DECORUM as part of his growing collection with NineByFive Productions.

@jonnylabey

QUENTIN BEROUD (Writer/Director)

Quentin is a writer and director for stage and screen. He has worked extensively at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston, as both writer and director. As a writer, his work includes Fabulous Creatures (Arcola, 2024) and The Game of Love & Chance (Arcola, 2024) which was nominated for an OffWestEnd Award.

For many years he co-ran Dippermouth Theatre Company. Dippermouth’s productions included Richard II at the Houses of Parliament (“One of the shows that defined 2016 theatre” - The Stage) and DH Lawrence’s The Daughter-In-Law, which sold out its run and then transferred to Arcola Studio 1 the next year.

Quentin has recently moved more into screen work, co-writing We All Scream with Jonny. He is represented by Lucy Hancock at Roger Hancock Ltd. DECORUM is his screen directing debut.

LIAM GEORGE (Producer)

Liam is a writer and producer, alongside his role as Junior Development Executive at Complete Fiction Pictures - Edgar Wright, Nira Park, Joe Cornish and Rachael Prior’s production company. He works in their scripted development team across all TV and film projects, most recently on Lockwood & Co and the upcoming The Undertow (both Netflix). 

His debut play, Plaster, received a professional reading at The Arcola Theatre, directed by our very own Quentin Beroud. His first musical, Elixir, which he co-wrote with his writing partner Stef Abingdon (The Midnight Beast), had a week-long professional workshop run at The Other Palace. He also played PC Webber in the BAFTA-winning BBC Comedy, This Country.